manty
Manty
Every family argues about the onion. My aunt in Talas used as much onion as meat; my grandmother tucked a little cube of pumpkin into each one. They argued about it lovingly for forty years, and I’m not going to choose between them. Try both.
Making manty is my favourite Saturday with my friends from church: one rolls, one fills, one pinches, and the steamer fogs up the windows while we talk. You need a tiered steamer, called a kaskan or mantovarka, but a bamboo steamer works too.
Ingredients servings
- Dough
- 500 gplain flour
- 1 egg
- 200 mlwater
- 1 tspsalt
- Filling
- 600 glamb or beef (or a mix), chopped by knife or coarsely minced
- 50 glamb fat or butter, finely chopped
- 3 onions, finely chopped
- 1.5 tspcumin seed
- 1 tspblack pepper
- 1.5 tspsalt
- 3 tbspcold water
Method
- Make a firm, smooth dough from the flour, egg, water and salt. Knead 8 minutes, cover and rest 30 minutes.
- Mix the filling with your hands until it holds together. The water keeps it juicy.
- Roll the dough into a log, cut into about 30 pieces, and roll each into a thin 10 cm circle.
- Put a spoonful of filling in the centre. Bring two opposite edges up and pinch, then the other two, then pinch the four corners together in pairs to make a little closed purse.
- Oil the steamer racks and set the manty on them, not touching. Steam over boiling water for 40–45 minutes.
- Serve with suzma or sour cream, black pepper, and chilli oil or a tomato-garlic sauce.
From my kitchenThey freeze well uncooked. Steam from frozen for 50 minutes.
With love from my kitchen to yours,Jibek
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